Gaia's Gambit: Evolution Online I (A LitRPG)
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It was all done in a surprisingly short time.
Congratulations! Thirty goblins are dead. You have earned nine thousand Experience Points!
Apparently, the barracks weren’t considered a dungeon, probably not the foundry either, but I bet the mine would be considered that.
We left the same way we came, slid out the window, closed the shutters, and the scouts and Gwen used darkness to shroud our exit back across the field and into cover. The rest of the quest wouldn’t be nearly so easy, but I felt a surge of relief as we skirted the edge of the forest toward the western side of the large hill.
There were two goblins outside the mine entrance, but other than that no others were in sight.
Rylla said, “We got this.”
Before anyone could object, her, Merith, and Sarlia shrouded and left.
Wynn looked annoyed for a moment, and then shook it off.
The two goblins stiffened, and then collapsed to the ground. It made me guess that the elven scouts were also assassins of sorts.
Wynn sighed, and we jogged across the field.
Rylla appeared from nothing, “Good luck sir. We’re going to go find a bed.”
Wynn replied, “Be safe, thanks for the help.”
Rylla nodded curtly, and the three elves left us at the entrance.
The mine itself was dimly lit by oil lanterns hanging on spikes driven into the walls. The tunnel was obviously dug out, but very roughly. I also couldn’t help but notice there was absolutely no support brackets put in for safety, then almost laughed at the thought. Of course there weren’t, they were evil goblins, and they used enslaved elven workers. I doubted mine safety was even a consideration.
We’d only gone about twenty feet, when the tunnel split. I heard guttural noises down the left tunnel, which is the one Wynn and Gwen led us into. It was dusty, humid, and dimly lit. It wasn’t long before we saw two goblins watching over six elves chained to the walls, they were laughing cruelly, and one had a whip in his hand.
They turned, and their eyes widened in alarm as Gwen and Wynn surged forward.
I cast an Ice Spike spell. It should have been safe enough to use fire, with control fires to stop splash damage on the elves, but though the water Sphere didn’t have an area of attack option, I could do just as much singular damage with it. I put twenty mana into it. Five for the initial spell, five for control water to double the damage, and an extra ten mana to add to the damage.
At level seven, my base damage for the spell was thirty-five, which mean a possible forty-five doubled. The spike struck the one on the left, at the same time Lyre’s fire blast arrow hit the one on the right. My spell did forty-four, eighty-eight in total over five seconds.
The two goblins were slow to draw given the pain and surprise, but they managed it in time to meet Gwen and Wynn, but they failed to block their first strike. The one on Gwen absorbed the curse from the blade, and roared.
Anlyth shot a stone spike at the same one his mate hit, and Wynn was fighting. It went down hard as Wynn ran it through a second later. The second goblin went down a moment later, under Gwen’s sword, my ice spike, and a fire blast and arrow from Lyre. When there was no popup for experience, I realized I was right, the mine was considered a dungeon by game mechanics.
The six elves looked up at us in disbelief.
Wynn said, “Anlyth.”
Anlyth started to free them with his earth magic, breaking the chains, while Wynn continued to talk.
Wynn said, “We’re getting you out of here. Grab some weapons, and we need you to guide us. I don’t want to leave an elf behind. We also need to cave in the tunnel system as we go.”
One of the elves nodded, “Alright, we’ll take you to the deepest part first, but we’re going to have to backtrack a lot, so no dropping ceilings until we tell you.”
Wynn grunted agreement, and the six men grabbed swords, daggers, and bows, each getting just one of those. They pointed further up the tunnel.
“We’re going to want to go left, and then down the mine shaft to the second level. There should be a second group of our people right around the bend.”
We moved forward.
At first it was easy. Each group of six elves were guarded by two goblins. We collected forty-two elves, and had killed sixteen of the goblins before one of them ran for it and set off the alarm. That’s when things got interesting, and thirty-eight more goblins including the eight on surface duty guarding the foundry and door to the barracks joined the hunt in the mine.
The mine was large, but not that large. We were back up on the first level. Anlyth had already collapsed the tunnels on the second level. It was a lot of rock, but by using the Assess Earth concept it was easy enough for him to identify key places to weaken and shift in order to bring it all down.
Regardless, we had our backs against the wall so to speak. The tunnel was only wide enough for two to stand and fight next to each other without getting in each other’s way, and there were forty-two goblins left and they knew where we were.
Wynn said, “Let’s take a stand here, get some obstacles up.”
It was an interesting decision, because I could see several goblins up the corridor moving our way, and more and more were joining the queue, our location was definitely compromised. Interesting, because it wasn’t as if we had a choice.
Short stone spikes rose up out of the ground in front of us. It wasn’t much, but it would slow them down a bit as they maneuvered through it more carefully. Anlyth also raised a small wall across the corridor. The only really good news was they could only come at us two at a time.
The forty-two elves behind us had weapons, but only a third of them had bows. The problem was the ceiling wasn’t all that high, and it wasn’t conducive to shooting arrows, for either side.
The fight was nasty, as Gwen and Wynn started the fight. We fell into a groove though, as soon as one of them were damaged, they stepped back and Anlyth stepped up. I healed Gwen, who was then ready to take the place of whoever got hurt next.
I wanted to help with damage, but Wynn and Anlyth were moving so fast in the tight quarters, I was afraid they’d step or dodge into my strike. I felt a little useless outside of my healing ability, and it was more than a little frustrating. I also wondered if the three of them had enough stamina to outfight over forty goblins two at a time. The goblins didn’t suck either, each fight dragged out for several minutes.
Wynn tired before he took a large amount of damage, and swapped out places with Gwen. I healed him anyway of his minor wounds, it was something to do and kept me busy a few moments.
Lyre made herself useful by casting an air shield on both our people fighting, and swapping it out as they swapped out.
A brief pause opened in the fight as the next set of lead goblins started to toss their dead back, there was a real pile of them. Both Gwen and Anlyth were perfectly still, and resting for a moment, happy to take advantage of the momentary lull in the fighting.
I shot a fire blast between them, and pumped in about a hundred fifty mana. Lyre had the same idea, and her fire chased mine into the crowd of goblins. My fire blast exploded. I’d only made the area of effect six feet wide, so they were all taking full or ninety percent damage.
Ten of that was for the area affect, but that one forty plus the thirty from my level and intelligence meant all the close goblins took one hundred sixty-nine, and the ones over three feet away but less than six took one hundred fifty-three. Even at the higher levels we were fighting, that was about three quarters of their hit points.
Gwen’s fire blast finished them off, a good fifteen of them died, and a few others were just injured. Gwen, Anlyth, and Wynn had taken down eleven themselves. But that still left almost twenty to deal with.
That’s why it was such a shock, when they turned tail and ran for their lives.
We all exchanged glances.
We moved warily regardless, as we claimed the dead goblins weapons, and freed another fifty-six elves. One
hundred and four in total. Anlyth continued to collapse the corridors one by one, and when we left the main entrance, there was no mine left at all as we stepped out into the light. There were also no goblins in sight.
Wynn said, “We need to pick up the speed, they must have gone for reinforcements.”
Congratulations! Sixty goblins are dead or have quit the field. You have earned eighteen thousand Experience Points!
Congratulations! Denying war resources to the enemy! The goblin mine is no more! You have earned ten thousand Experience Points!
I nodded, “The foundry, then let’s escort your people to your forest.”
Wynn nodded, and we raced for the foundry building. It was hot, and unpleasant inside. There was a lot of equipment in there for breaking up ore, smelting it, and stone channels and molds for pouring ingots. There was also a lot of unprocessed ore piled in the corner, and a lot of steel ingots stacked up and ready for transport.
Fortunately, Anlyth wasn’t the only elf present with the Earth sphere, or it would have taken him hours to do enough damage by himself. The ore and ingots were fused into one large piece of junk. It would take an Earth shaman a long time to fix it, even if they had one. The equipment, molds, and stone channels were all turned to gravel or warped.
Lastly, when we stepped out, they took down the building itself, made it a large pile of rubble.
Congratulations! Denying war resources to the enemy! The goblin foundry has been destroyed! You have earned ten thousand Experience Points!
Wow, that was forty-seven thousand experience points since I woke up that morning, but I still needed another fourteen hundred or so to level. I was level seven, and pretty soon it would get to the point where leveling every day would be a thing of the past.
I looked around, while we’d been doing that the other unarmed elves had broken into the barracks, and claimed thirty more bows, swords, and daggers. Every single one of them was armed now, and at least half of them had bows.
Wynn said, “Alright, move to the southwest and our forest border at your best speed. The five of us will take up the rear, and make sure no one is left behind. Get moving!”
The elves shivered, and then took off at a jog. Some of them even managed to run a little, but they were all out of shape from the poor conditions they were kept in, and in not getting enough food and liquids. The ones that fell toward the back, about fifteen of them, were moving barely faster than a walk.
Still, we’d moved fast enough, and as we left the hill with the rocky ground and open area, and entered the woods, there’d been no sign of returning goblins.
“You doing okay?”
Gwen smiled, “Great, why?”
I shrugged, “That fight looked tough, and I felt useless.”
She snorted, and gave me a look, “Maybe, but you and Lyre killed more goblins in one second, than we did in about fifteen minutes.”
I nodded, “Noted, no feeling sorry for myself.”
She snickered, “Good. You’re my glass cannon, and I’m your shield, get used to it.”
“Yes dear.”
She frowned at me, but her lips were twitching.
Wynn said, “Pay attention, we’re not out of danger yet.”
I blushed, “No goblins within thirty feet of me?”
It was true enough, I did have detect life going. I almost always did now that I was regenerating over four mana a second.
Wynn rolled his eyes, “Flirt later.”
Gwen raised an eyebrow, and her voice sounded sultry and faux hopeful, “Is that an order, sir?”
Wynn snickered, “I give up… just, pay attention.”
We both grinned impudently, but then both nodded in agreement. Our banter would have to wait. It was silly maybe, but there was very little else that could compare with being in love with someone, who felt the same in return. We were also a little flush with success, that mission had gotten a little hairy, but overall it went remarkably well.
So far at any rate.
The twenty surviving goblins had a two-mile run back to base, then however long it took to get reinforcements and return. I guessed that would take at least a half hour, just to run the four miles, and another fifteen or twenty minutes to gather reinforcements. Possibly longer, if one of the upper goblins questioned them too long.
Finishing up the mine and foundry, even without resistance, had taken at least forty-five minutes. I supposed it was possible they were right on our trail. Even an idiot couldn’t fail to track a hundred and nine beings running through a forest. We were also walking, at least the last twenty of us, and the elven forest border was at least two to three miles to the south.
That gave the goblins about an hour to catch up, if they chose pursuit. I couldn’t imagine they wouldn’t, we’d just destroyed a couple of major pieces of their war infrastructure, they had to be pissed.
I took the time to heal each of the fifteen slowest elves, the rest were long out of our sight. It helped with their endurance a little, but what they really needed was food, drink, and a whole lot of rest.
I walked as quietly as possible to pass the time. I also studied the game trails, and the tracks left by animals. A few times I imagined taking down a rabbit, or a squirrel, but didn’t actually do it. It seemed that was enough, utilizing my Hunter skill brought me up to level six.
It also enabled me to be more aware of the forest around me.
I’d guess we’d gone a little over a mile, when I heard breaking twigs and the sounds of disturbed brush behind us. I turned, and couldn’t see the goblins yet, but I knew they were there. Game doesn’t step on twigs, just clumsy humanoids.
“Goblins.”
Wynn nodded, “I heard.”
He turned to the elves ahead of us, “Keep going, we’re going to make a stand here. Don’t stop until you cross the border, and not even then.”
One of the elves scowled, “We can shoot our bows, we’ll take to the trees and support you.”
Wynn looked like he might argue, but all the exhausted elves had a hint of steel in their eyes, and looked hungry for a little payback.
“Alright. Be quick.”
Anlyth cast control Earth, and created a smaller version of the fortifications we’d used so successfully in our forest. It was about ten by ten, a wall four feet high in the front, with another higher eight foot wall behind them as cover for Lyre and I on a platform. The walls only went ten feet high as well.
Anlyth said, “That took all my mana, best I can do. I need to regen, they’re almost here.”
We all got in the fortifications, and Lyre and I got on the platform in the back.
I also used control water to coat the outer walls in an inch-thick layer of ice, making it impossible to climb the back or side walls. Secondly, I created a slab of ice two inches thick on the ground in front of it, ten feet wide, and fifteen feet long. It wasn’t much of an obstacle, but it would make footing treacherous. If the goblins ran at the wall full speed, they’d fall on their asses and be easy targets. They would also slide, which is why I grew several ice spikes on the bottom foot of the four-foot wall.
Since I made the ice so thin, it barely cost me forty mana, and I’d get that back in about ten seconds. It wouldn’t last longer than a few hours, but we’d only need it for a few minutes.
The goblins were pissed, and they charged us with a war cry as soon as they saw us. It looked like there was about forty of them. They also kept a respectable distance from each other, no doubt the goblins that ran had warned about our fire magic. I was surprised there wasn’t more, but maybe there’d only been that many ready to go on short notice.
If it was just the five of us we’d be dead, but it wasn’t.
Gwen, Lyre, and Wynn opened up with their bows, as Anlyth threw an earth spike, he hadn’t had the time or mana to make those metal jagged things he favored. Fifteen other bows opened up at the same time, from the surrounding trees high up in the boughs.
Last but not least, my fire blast launch
ed from my hand. I put twenty-six mana into it, and hit for forty-eight damage, ninety-six in total over five seconds. I picked the same one Lyre had shot on purpose, and that goblin died after a few more steps.
The other attacks were effective as well, wounding several goblins and killing two more outright.
We fired again to similar results, that still left over thirty left untouched, and a few with minor wounds, with only four dead. Then the lead goblins hit my little ice rink. They slipped with a scream of anger, and slid into the spikes, where they were peppered with several arrows.
Lyre and I took out another while those three died, and the enemy was down to thirty-two. But the rest of the group had gotten there, and it looked like a comedy routine as several slipped and fell, taking down their comrades, while we blasted them fire, curses, earth, and arrows. If I wasn’t so afraid for my elven friends, I’d have probably laughed at the sight.
Several managed to stand back up and shuffle toward the wall, while they absorbed damage. But there were too many, for every one of them that we took out as they closed the distance, there were three more. Still, the goblins couldn’t get traction to successfully leap onto the wall, not until one thought to use a handy dead goblin as a boost anyway.
I cast an ice wall, on top of the four-foot wall, which launched the goblin into the air. He fell forward instead of back, but Gwen and Wynn’s swords were there to meet him, as well as Anlyth’s staff.
I dismissed the wall with a thought, which became flowing water which landed on the goblins grouped in front of the wall. It ran out over the ice, and I used the heat spell to draw out all the heat, and the water froze, essentially freezing all those goblins’ boot soles to the ice sheet. I admit, a small snicker might have escaped my lips at that point. There were about twenty goblins left, and they were all frozen in place. There were loud cracks, as the stronger ones escaped the quickest.